Pro Football Hall of Famer and longtime NFL Players Association executive director Gene Upshaw has died. The former offensive lineman had been fighting pancreatic cancer. He was 63.

Upshaw played for the Oakland and Los Angeles Raiders from 1967 through 1981. He was a seven-time Pro Bowl selection and an 11-time All-Pro, playing on two Super Bowl-winning teams with the Raiders. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1987, but has been better known for the past 25 years as the executive director of the NFL Players Association.

From his involvement with the NFLPA as a player through his tenure as executive director, Upshaw took part in negotiations of the 1977, 1982 and 1993 Collective Bargaining Agreements between the NFL and NFLPA, and extensions of the CBA in 1998, 2002 and 2006.

Upshaw was born on Aug. 15, 1945, in Robstown, Texas, and played collegiately at Texas A&M. He was a first-round draft pick of the Oakland Raiders in 1967 and became the starting left guard as a rookie. He quickly became part of one of the NFL's most dominant offensive lines, lining up between fellow Hall of Famers Art Shell at tackle and Jim Otto at center. Upshaw became the first player who was exclusively a guard to be enshrined in the Hall of Fame.

Upshaw is survived by his wife, Terri, and sons, Justin, Daniel and Eugene Jr.

Hell of a football player. Had it been public he was fighting cancer? I don't remember having heard he was in ill health.

Same here. I had no idea he was sick. This is a bit of a shock. I remember reading that the Union had apointed a committee to start searching for his replacement, but I thought that was a sign that they didn't like how he was handling the owners opting out of the CBA. I guess there was a bit more to that story.

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